In this section, you will create a folder structure containing Microsoft Windows 2008 device drivers from the Cisco UCS C-Series Rack Server drivers ISO image. This folder structure will be used for driver injection into the Altiris Microsoft Windows PE preboot image.

Cisco unifies the OS drivers for Cisco UCS C-Series Servers, packaging certified drivers into a unified ISO image based on the firmware level with which they were certified. This document uses Microsoft Windows OS drivers based on Cisco UCS C-Series Servers Firmware Release 1.4.6.

After the ISO image is extracted (for example, using WinZip, WinRAR, or 7-Zip), the drivers are placed into folders based on OS category: Linux, Solaris, Microsoft Windows, or VMware. Only the Microsoft Windows folder is discussed here (Figure 1).

Figure 1. Driver ISO Directory Listing

The next steps involve copying device driver folders from the driver ISO image. The goal is to create a folder structure containing all the Microsoft Windows 2008 device drivers that are required for the Altiris preboot image. You should rename the subfolders so that you can easily identify the vendor, device model, and OS and architecture to which the driver applies. For example, for the Intel ICH10 disk controller, you could use Cisco_Intel_ICH10_W2K8_x64.

The drivers in the ISO are not all in a consistent format. The best approach is to extract the drivers for a specific device into a single folder that includes all required device driver files (.cat, .inf, and .sys). Some drivers are simplified, but others require some manipulation (for example, you may need to extract drivers from an executable installation file or identify the specific driver folder that is required for Microsoft Windows plug-and-play support).

Note: If a small ISO file is included in the driver directory, this ISO contains the exact drivers needed for this exercise.

All the drivers required are documented in the Altiris Support Matrix spreadsheet (on the Driver Injection Matrix tab). They are divided into four categories: disk controllers, network adapters, SAN host bus adapters (HBAs), and converged network adapters (CNAs).

Tables 1 through 4 provide matrices of the four categories of devices that are supported with the Cisco UCS C-Series Rack Servers, with any additional instructions required for extracting the drivers. Figure 2 provides an example of driver extraction using the WinRAR right-click context menu.

Injecting the drivers for local disk controllers, network interfaces, and storage HBA interfaces allows a server to be discovered and managed by Altiris (for example, it provides the capability to run jobs that deploy the OS to these servers).

Note: Because the Altiris Microsoft Windows x64 preboot image is based on Microsoft Windows PE 2.1 (which is based on Microsoft Windows 2008), only the Microsoft Windows 2008 drivers are required for injection into Microsoft Windows PE.

Note: The chip set drivers are not required for injection into the Altiris Microsoft Windows PE preboot image.

As part of the Altiris 6.9 SP5 installation, the default Microsoft Windows x64 preboot image should already be installed (the process is not discussed in this document). In this section, this preboot image will be edited to inject all the Cisco UCS C-Series Rack Server drivers required.

3. The wizard will move by default to the Step 9 of 12: Edit Configuration screen. Click the Edit button to go back to Step1 and then click Next to go to the Step 2 of 12: Windows PE Hardware Device Drivers screen. Add each Cisco device driver (one at a time) by clicking Have Disk and browsing to an .inf file in the target driver folder (as listed in the matrices in Tables 1 through 4 earlier in this document).

Note: If the driver folder contains multiple .inf files, you will need to run this process for each file.

The Add WinPE Hardware Device Drivers screen will simply list what was found in the .inf file and then import what is required automatically after you click OK (the example in the screen image shows drivers for the Broadcom 5709).

4. Click OK. Processing will occur, followed by this message:

5. Click No. Repeat the process in steps 3 and 4 for each driver (each time clicking No to not refresh the list of drivers) until all the drivers have been added.

6. After the final driver is added, click Yes to refresh the list of drivers in the Boot Disk Creator windows.

7. After all the drivers have been added and the list of drivers has finished refreshing, click Next.

9. At Boot Disk Creator Step 6, you should change the drive mapping to use the Z: drive.

Note: Using the default drive letter (F:) can conflict with the virtual floppy CD/DVD or other system devices. This conflict can prevent the Altiris Express share from being mounted properly.

10. Click Next through Boot Disk Creator Steps 7, 8, 9, and 10 (keeping all the existing settings). At Step 11, the WinPE image will be built (this process can take a few minutes). When the process is completed, you will see the Step 12 of 12: Boot Disk Creation Complete screen. Click Finish and then OK on the screen that follows.

11. When you are back to the PXE Configuration Utility-Shared Configuration screen, be sure to click Save. You will see the status along the bottom of the screen. When processing is finished, Save will be dimmed, and the WinPE Managed revision numerator will be incremented by 1.

12. Click OK to close the PXE Configuration Utility. The process is complete.